It is widely argued that the era of Fordism began with the development of the model T motor car, the world’s first successfully mass-produced car, at Henry Ford’s Piquette Avenue manufacturing plant in Detroit, Michigan. From this, a new age of production developed, changing both the economic and the political landscape of manufacturing globally, and establishing the progression to a new form of capitalism. The key characteristics of Fordism center around the major industrial paradigm of mass production that involves production of standardized goods by unskilled labor through the use of assembly-line techniques. This principle of ‘continuous-flow production’ as a new regime of accumulation inherently involved a rise in mass consumerism, that was encouraged by the supply of relatively cheap products, intelligent advertising and, arguably most importantly, through changes to social conditions of low-skilled employees. This originated from Henry Ford himself, who notoriously raised minimum pay to $5 a day Continue reading
Management Basics
Critical Thinking in Business
Critical thinking is one of the most important skills required in making various decisions that pertain to business, management, relationships, and every other aspect of life. Many definitions have been ascribed to critical thinking by various scholars. Generally, critical thinking refers to the capacity to form thoughts clearly and logically. It encompasses the ability to undertake reflective and self-regulating thinking. Watson-Glaser defined critical thinking as a combination of attitudes, skills, and knowledge. It is purposeful, independent judgment, which brings about interpretation, analysis, assessment, and conclusion, in addition to rationalization of the abstract, evidential, practical, or background reflection at which that decision is based. Critical thinking is pegged on the assumptions that the quality thinking of an individual impacts on their quality of life and secondly, every individual can continually learn how to improve their quality of thinking. Critical thinking skills enable one to appreciate the rational connections involving ideas and Continue reading
Types of Management Control
Management Control Types There are three major types of management control over behavior in organizations. Each control has its own standards, its own monitoring system and its own system for corrective action when behavior does not meet standards. These three types of management controls are given below: Organizational Controls. The organizational controls refer to the formal rules and standard operating procedures that are communicated throughout the organization. Such controls are concerned with the total organization and may, therefore, be called administrative controls. The direction for organizational controls comes from the plans and purposes of the organization. In business organizations, this direction is often expressed in terms of market share, cost reduction, return on investment etc. These may be translated into specific performance measures such as sales quotation standard costs and budgets. Rewards for meeting standards, vary from a word of praise to salary increase and promotion. Social Controls. Social or Continue reading
3 Important Roles of Organizational Hierarchy
Hierarchy refers to a system of organization that respects the chain of command whereby each agency is under supervision of a higher office. In many organizations, a group of managers is always above other employees in terms of knowledge and experience and is placed at the top while others follow based on their experience and the understanding of the organizational functions. Hierarchy is mostly present in government and other governmental institutions whereby each unit has its own powers, authority, and levels of management. Based on the chain of command, an individual communicates or reports to the immediate supervisor or the authority above him. Hierarchy was adopted mainly because it allows information flow given the fact that a junior officer cannot surpass the authority above him or her to report to the senior manager, unless it is necessary. Hierarchy plays an important role in any organization because it benefits the company Continue reading
Organizational Chart – Meaning, Definition, Features, Types, Advantages and Limitations
Organizational structure of a company can be shown in a chart. Such chart indicates how different departments are interlinked on the basis of authority and responsibility. It is a simple diagrammatic method of describing an Organizational structure. It indicates how the departments are linked together on the basis of authority and responsibility. Such organizational chart provides information of the organizational structure at a glance. Organizational chart is like a blue print of a building. It indicates the number and types of departments, superior-subordinate relationship, chain of command and communication. According to George Terry, organizational chart is “a diagrammatical form which shows important aspects of an organization, including the major functions and their respective relationships, the channels of supervision and the relative authority of each employee who is in-charge of each respective function”. Features of Organizational Chart The definition noted above indicates the following features of Organizational charts: Organizational chart is a Continue reading
Attitudes – Definition, Components, Sources and Types
Attitudes can be defined as an individual’s feelings about or inclinations towards other persons, objects, events, or activities. Attitudes encompass such affective feelings as likes and dislikes, and satisfactions and dissatisfactions. Our needs, past experiences, self-concept, and personality shape the beliefs, feelings, and opinion we hold towards the perceived world. Once we have formed our likes and dislikes, we generally cling on to them and find it difficult to change our attitudes, unless we make a conscious and determined effort to do so. An interesting phenomenon is that our values shape our attitudes. Traditionally, behavioral scientists have divided attitudes into two major groups: i) those that are cognitive (for example, beliefs or expectations about cause-effect relationships between events) and ii) those that are evaluative (for example, liking or disliking for event). An example of a cognitive attitude would be an employee’s belief that superior job performance would be rewarded by Continue reading